Charlie Hebdo (1969)

In 1960, Professor Choron Bernier and François Cavanna launched a monthly magazine entitled Hara-Kiri that included Roland Topr, Fred, Jean-Marc Reiser, Georges Wolinski, Gébé and Cabu. Willingly « dumb and nasty », the accusation becomes their official slogan. In 1969, the team launched a weekly publication on top of the monthly one. But to sidestep its 1970 ban due to an offending cover referring to ex- French President de Gaulle’s death, it changed its name into Charlie Hebdo (both a hint to Schulz’s Charlie Brown and Charles de Gaulle). With its garish front-page cartoons and incendiary headlines, it became an unmissable staple of newspaper kiosks and railway station booksellers. But still, it didn’t sell enough and, in 1981, the magazine folded. It was resurrected in 1992. Since then, its editors in chief have been Philippe Val and Charb. Charlie Hebdo have always combined left-wing radicalism with a provocative scurrility that often borders on the obscene. Its decision to mock the Prophet Muhammad in 2011 was entirely consistent with its historic raison d'etre. In spite of the threats and the trials, it kept on mocking religious fundamentalism. It experienced two terrorist attacks, in 2011 and in 2015. In the latter of these islamist attacks, on January, 7, 2015, twelve people were killed during the weekly editorial meeting, including Charb, Cabu, Tignous, Wolinski, as well as French economist Bernard Maris. Out of this crime, a new slogan came out to express compassion and solidarity with the magazine, saying « I am Charlie ».